My name is Sarah and I am addicted to magazines.

It began fairly innocently at the age of eleven when I discovered Big
with its technicolour graphics, celebrity interviews and pull out
posters of Tom Cruise and Take That and New Kids on the Block…
Initially it was a slow burn for a year or two, then the fires ignited
as I hit my teens and they couldn’t print the magazines fast enough!

I graduated to Mizz, then More, followed by Company, Looks, Sky, NME,
Mixmag and The Face. To be honest I’d buy and devour just about any
magazine and would occasionally look to foreign publications like The
National Enquirer, Allure and Cleo.  The one magazine I never got
on with was Cosmopolitan, it was and still is, full of regurgitated
crap about relationships, men, love and better sex… none of which
really makes for captivating reading.

There was a point when I began buying Elle and Marie Clare religiously
at college, but that soon petered out as I discovered New Woman, then
Instyle. For about a year I enjoyed a brief flirtation with Empire and
developed a crush on Elle Girl, but the past 3 or 4 years have been
punctuated with low cost, instant gratification affairs such as OK! and
Hello, and as I became more celebrity obsessed, Heat (undoubtedly the
daddy of all gossip magazines), Star, New, Closer and Reveal – although
I am slightly ashamed to admit it!

I don’t consider myself grown up enough yet to begin buying Tatler,
Vogue and Harpers and Queen (although I know that’s just around the
corner), however I do like to think I’ve become more selective with
age. Instyle is a must, as is Heat and Zest. I buy Elle if I’m liking
the cover, the same with Marie Clare, Glamour, Eve and Fitness and
Health. If I’m into the movies that month I’ll purchase Empire and I
try to ignore OK! and Star but temptation always gets the better of me!

I await Tuesdays (Heat hits the shelves) and the first of each month
with mounting excitement, knowing there’ll be fresh new copies for me
to read, more dresses to admire and new beauty products for me to add
to my burgeoning shelves.

I have secret dalliances with men’s mags too. I like Arena, Maxim and
GQ and do buy them occasionally. And I can’t resist a look through
Loaded, FHM, Rugby World and Men’s Fitness if I’m in a house with a
copy. I go to visit friends and find myself nosing around to see if
they have a magazine that I deemed unworthy to buy myself in the hope
that they may have bought it and I can rifle through it!

Newspaper supplements are my thing as well. Saturday’s Guardian and
Telegraph have great magazines and I love the Style mag in the Times on
Sunday. Although I rarely buy it, the Mail’s weekend supplements are
great and I’m loving the Mirror’s celebrity supplements.

However my current favourite is the Evening Standard’s Friday mag. It
beats the competition to a bloody pulp… I hadn’t quite realised how bad
my addiction had become until one recent Friday I began having
palpitations as I caught the last tube home when I realised I hadn’t
picked up a copy of the ES magazine. I scoured the tube for an
abandoned copy, saw some guy with one and was tempted to try and mug
him for it. Luckily on my walk home a late night newsagent was still
open and I found a beaten copy by the door, which I snatched and ran
out with. Bugger the papers, I want the supplements!

One of my most exciting ‘London moments’ so far, followed a spot of
late night window-shopping or should that be salivating on New Bond
Street.  As I reached Green Park tube station to head home I found
dozens of abandoned Sunday newspaper supplements outside… Can you
imagine my delight?

I have piles and piles of magazines at home and can’t bear to part with
them. I frequently reread them and remember how life was. Sometimes I
get fed up with the trashy back issues of OK! and Heat etc and take
them down to the gym, doctors or dentist. I like to think I’m doing a
good deed, however I couldn’t handle parting with glossies and knowing
they may end up in the bin!

It does make me slightly sick thinking of the amount of money I’ve
spent on magazines over the years, not to mention that my parents think
it’s ‘shallow’… but for the most part I’ve enjoyed every issue of every
magazine I’ve ever read. They’ve kept me entertained, fed my insatiable
appetite for celebrity gossip, dazzled me with pictures of beautiful
people in beautiful clothes and shoes, inspired me and generally
brightened up my life.